French (Civ6)
towards Medieval, Renaissance, and Industrial s. Double from Wonders of any era. |leader-bonus-name = |leader-bonus-description = |leader-agenda-name = |leader-agenda-description = |empire_name = French Empire |adjectives = French |location = Europe |size = Est. 246.2 thousand square miles (640.6 thousand square km) |population = Est. 66.6 million |irl-capital = Various (Orleans, Tours, Versailles, Vichy, mostly Paris) }} The French people represent a civilization in Civilization VI. They have two different leaders: Catherine de Medici and (with Gathering Storm) Eleanor of Aquitaine. Their secondary color is yellow (#EBEB8B), while their primary color changes depending on who leads them. Under Catherine, it is blue (#0000CD), while under Eleanor, it is pink (#FA72A8). The French civilization ability is Grand Tour, which gives them +20% towards Medieval, Renaissance, and Industrial era wonders and doubles from wonders of any era. Their unique unit is the Garde Impériale, and their unique tile improvement is the Château. Strategy France, under either Eleanor or Catherine, is still quite focused on a Cultural Victory. As a matter of fact, this is one of the simplest and most straightforward cultural civilizations, especially when led by Catherine de Medici, so it is suitable for newer players to try out and get used to the Cultural Victory path. Grand Tour Another Wonder focused ability, Grand Tour shares more similarities with Egypt's Iteru than with Qin Shi Huang's First Emperor, as Grand Tour gives a percentage to cities' when they are constructing Wonders. However, Grand Tour comes with its own restrictions as well as advantages: its bonus only applies to Medieval to Industrial Wonders but there is no restriction of Wonder placement for the bonus to kick in. Since France focuses on a cultural game, a few Wonders they should prioritize in this time are: * Great Zimbabwe: Not a straightforward Cultural Wonder, but no one would scoff at an extra Trade Route, especially when combined with Great Merchants like Sarah Breedlove and Melitta Bentz (this Wonder also helps with competing in the Great Merchant race) plus the Online Communities policy card. * Forbidden City: One of the best Wonders in the game, so versatile that it is a brilliant addition that any empire can use. * Taj Mahal: An alright Wonder but pretty good with the French. Earning Golden Ages is easier with it, allowing the French to earn the Dedication Wish You Were Here a bit more consistently. This Dedication allows a total of 150% extra from Wonders. However, if you believe that you are in the front seat and can earn Golden Ages quite easily, ignore this Wonder. * Hermitage: A purely Cultural Wonder that helps earn Great Artists faster. This Wonder is weak, so don't go out of your way for it. The fact that you build Theater Squares en masse means you will earn Great Artists pretty quickly already. Its only selling point is the 4 slots of Great Works of Art, but Wonders are non-themeable for everyone except for Kristina, so it is not the best investment for a whopping 1450 . Only consider this Wonder if you are able to build it in your main cultural hub, where the Governor with the Curator promotion is assigned (Reyna in Rise and Fall or Pingala in Gathering Storm). * Bolshoi Theater: An even stronger Cultural Wonder, as it has a rare Great Work of Music slot, and helps earn Great Musicians faster as well. If you can only build either the Hermitage or the Bolshoi Theater, prioritize the Bolshoi Theater - Great Musicians and the Great Work of Music slot are generally more powerful later in the game. * Big Ben: A boost to your treasury is always welcome. Most importantly, it gives you an extra Economic policy slot, where all of the -boosting policies can be put. An absolute must, even situationally more important than the purely Cultural Wonders. And of course, it makes recruiting Sarah Breedlove and Melitta Bentz easier. * Oxford University and Ruhr Valley: These two Wonders do not directly lead you to Cultural Victory, but are worth considering if you want a strong Scientific backup route. If you have time and , try to build them. They are arguably more useful than the Hermitage, even when you try to push for a Cultural Victory, as they help you advance scientifically faster and build late game Wonders when Grand Tour bonus is no longer active (like Eiffel Tower, Golden Gate Bridge or Sydney Opera House). Oxford University also offers +2 Great Works of Writing slots, which is nice, but not game-changing by any means. Of course, straightforward civilizations like the French often meet their downfall when their only preferred victory path is hindered, so it is always useful to have a backup. The best backup routes for the French are Scientific (focus on Ruhr Valley and Oxford University, as outlined above), and Diplomatic (focus on Országház and Statue of Liberty), considering the passive and defensive nature of cultural civilizations on the whole and the Garde Impériale in particular. Religious Victory is weird, since having a religion is nice and France can build midgame Religious Wonders but they do not want to put down too many Holy Sites, and most importantly, spreading your religion can provoke unwanted animosity when all you want to do is to develop your in peace. Catherine's Flying Squadron (Catherine de Medici) Espionage is the name of the game when Catherine de Medici leads the French, and she is truly the queen at it. Spies are getting stronger and more vital than ever, as every expansion adds at least one or two new tricks into their repertoire, opening up their possibilities to pretty much, well, anything. Catherine is not only able to earn the first Spy in the game at Castles and have more Spies than anyone else, her Spies start with a promotion. This promotion allows her Spies to save a few turns of running Gain Sources, or have to delay harder missions (Steal Great Works, Disrupt Rocketry, Steal Tech Boost...) to undertake easier, less important missions to level up (Foment Unrest, Siphon Funds...). Having the first possible Spy in the game is actually much more important than it sounds, as it is synonymous to the fact that there is no counterplay to your espionage besides sheer luck. The first Spy a standard civilization can have is unlocked with Diplomatic Service, a Renaissance Era Civic, meaning any -focused civilizations (Korea, Australia, Arabia, Sumeria...) unlock their first Spy long after you have yours, making these civilizations the prime target to steal tech boosts from. You can pretty much warrant your Scientific Victory backup just by stealing from your neighbors. You have a competitor in gathering Great Works? Have a Spy to steal from them. A civilization is dominating in relationships with City-states? Send a Spy to Fabricate Scandals. Your neighbor is having Loyalty issues? Neutralize Governors and Foment Unrest can flip their cities under your control faster. Someone is attempting to venture into space? A Spy with the Rocket Scientist promotion can quickly solve the problem. Just want to be an incessant annoyance and as mean as possible? Run Recruit Partisans on repeat. The possibilities are endless. This is a truly terrifying ability yet very underrated about how impactful it can be. Other cultural civilizations are afraid of warmongers, as they are often not well-equipped enough to defend themselves. Not France, especially under Catherine: against the AI, the Gossip system will keep them well-informed about what their neighbors are up to. Also, the flat extra level of Diplomatic Visibility now has military implications, plus Catherine's extensive Spy network, French army will almost always have the upper hand from intelligence against their invaders. Court of Love (Eleanor of Aquitaine) Court of Love is a weird ability since it is impossible to evaluate its power level in a vacuum: it ranges from completely useless to totally broken. The reason for this is that this ability, in nature, is very similar to a game of conquest. It is all about snowballing: once you are able to conquer one neighbor city, it will trigger a domino effect to every nearby one. The main difference between Court of Love and a traditional warmongering ability is that it is utterly passive, and you need a whole lot of luck for certain factors to align perfectly in your favor to get this snowball rolling. In a true warmongering situation, on the other hand, you can just amass your army and use strategies to run your neighbors over (which can be totally controlled by you). The following factors that affect this ability's efficacy: * How fast you can accrue Great Works. * Your neighbor needs to be in a worse Age than you (or at least the same Age). While you can control what Age you will receive (for the most parts), you cannot decide that for the enemy. * Population size of the neighboring cities. The bigger they are, the harder it is to Loyalty-flip them. If you happen to spawn next to civilizations with a tendency of going tall (Khmer, India, etc.), you are just out of luck. * In order to successfully flip one city to trigger a domino effect, you will need to surround the enemy empire with your cities, which is considered as a transgression and may trigger an unwanted war even before your Loyalty pressure starts to kick in. As a cultural civilization, you most likely just want to stay away from war since you do not like building a large army. * This ability can only work in single player, not all the time, but when it does, it works wonders. In multiplayer, however, human players are much more intelligent in terms of dealing with Loyalty pressure; they are less bound by warmongering penalty or Grievances, so they will just wage war on you if your empire is deemed to pose a threat to theirs. The best you can get out of this ability is to force other players to put Governors where they do not want to balance the Loyalty pressure, or to spread Governor titles out to many Governors instead of spending many titles on one. Nonetheless, there are certain measures you can take - not enough to ensure the odds will always be in your favor, but they can definitely help your peaceful conquest: * Build Entertainment Complexes and run Bread and Circuses. This is a kind of high risk, high reward play. When you surround enemy cities with your own cities in which Entertainment Complexes are built, you can run Bread and Circuses at the same time in all of them to exert a large wave of Loyalty pressure. If it works, great, your snowball has started to roll; if it doesn't, well, basically you shoot yourself in the foot. Entertainment Complexes are still the weakest specialty district in the game, and while you may want to build only one for the Colosseum, having to expend not only to build them but to run their equally unimpactful projects without getting anything in return can just ruin your gameplay and set you back a ton. Definitely not something you would want to do in a multiplayer game since, again, human players can deal with this with relative ease. In single player, only attempt this when you are in or anticipate a better Age than your neighbor, or they have forward-settled next to you and now their cities are dwindling. Never attempt this when their cities are full Loyalty and exerting a high amount of pressure, as it is suicidal. * Your most valuable asset: Spies. Neutralize Governor and Foment Unrest are the two missions to focus on. Aim for Diplomatic Service and build the Intelligence Agency, as this is the fastest way to earn the first 2 Spies; send both of them to a nearby city and run both of these missions together. Foment Unrest can be run on repeat. This is more effective when the enemy has a worse Age than you, most ideally if they are in a Dark Age and you are in a Golden Age. If your Age is not favorable to you, it is better to run other traditional missions, like Steal Great Works or Steal Tech Boosts; otherwise it will feel like a Sisyphean task. * Always try for a Golden Age. This goes without saying, since when you cannot control what Age your neighbor will get, you can (relatively) control what Age you will get, and it is important for Eleanor to be in a Golden Age, since the worst case scenario, the enemy may just have a similar age, not better, so your Great Work loyalty pressure can kick in. The Taj Mahal can be a great Wonder, as it is supported by the Grand Tour ability and helps you earn Golden Ages reliably. * Earn Great Works (duh!). This goes without saying as well, since this is the core of your power. However, consider this paradox: Genghis Khan can be as "cultured" as Eleanor if he builds Theater Squares en masse, meaning Eleanor has an interesting incentive to accrue Great Works, yet has absolutely no upper hand in getting them compared to any non-cultural power. Therefore, any edge you can create for yourself in the race of earning Great People is greatly appreciated. The easiest combo is Ancestral Hall + Colonization to go wide, plus the City Patron Goddess (preferably) or Divine Spark pantheon and put down a Theater Square first and foremost in every city. Of course, you can go for other more extravagant strategies like Holy Sites + Oracle, but this is the most reliable one. City Patron Goddess is relatively better than Divine Spark because Divine Spark only gives bonus to Great Writers, but faster Theater Square construction benefits all types of Great Works. Overall, Eleanor of Aquitaine is not as good of a leader as Catherine de Medici, as her ability is too unreliable in singleplayer and could be borderline useless in multiplayer. It requires either a risky setup or too many lucky factors to align. Château The Château plays to France's strength in the cultural game, providing them with a bonus, especially when adjacent to Wonders. This translates to a very impressive bonus upon the discovery of Flight. Building Châteaux around luxury resources will help France keep its economy strong, and they can also create good spots for Seaside Resorts when placed next to coastal tiles. Garde Impériale France is a culture-driven civilization, and as everyone knows you have to be able to defend yourself to win. Since the Garde Impériale gets a combat bonus when fighting on your home continent it makes it an amazing defensive troop. The best strategy for these guys is to make one for each city and a few extra as support. If anyone tries to attack you, spread out your extra troops to the areas in most need of help and make sure your Capital is well defended. Every time you successfully kill an enemy, you will gain points which will allow you to recruit a Great General to aid you in defense. Of course, the Garde Impériale's special combat bonus is active not only in your lands, but on your entire home continent. This gives the French player some...interesting opportunities for expansion. An aggressive neighbor aspiring to smash the weak culturally-oriented civ that only thinks about wonders and Great Works will hardly expect a devastating retaliatory strike with a newly-earned Great General! Victory Types Under either Catherine or Eleanor, France is a cultural civilization through and through, despite some slight differences in playstyle. You should have yourself a backup route just in case your cultural path is hindered. This backup route can be greatly facilitated by the Wonders you choose to build in the midgame. Civilopedia entry Cities Citizens Males: * Alban * Benoit * Christophe * Corentin * Déodat * Émeric * Judicael * Laurent * Renaud * Yves Females: * Aalis * Adélaide * Blanche * Céleste * Daphné * Élise * Geneviève * Jocelyne * Solange * Tiphaine * Charlotte * Isabelle Modern males: * Antoine * Armand * Claude * Dacey * Jerome * Marcel * Orvil * Percival * Tristan * Verne Modern females: * Babette * Delphine * Gabrielle * Honoré * Linette * Noelle * Odette * Renée * Severin * Yevette Trivia * The French civilization's symbol is the fleur-de-lis, which has a long history of use in French heraldry. * The French civilization ability is named after the traditional trip through Europe undertaken mainly by aristocratic men in the 17th and 18th centuries, which is considered a precursor for modern-age tourism. * The French civilization's colors under Catherine de Medici were changed in Gathering Storm to avoid confusion with the Swedish, whose colors are light blue and yellow. * France is also playable in The Black Death, in which it is led by King Philip VI; and the War Machine scenario, in which it is led by the French High Command. Gallery File:Civ6 Garde Imperiale in game.jpg|The Garde Impériale, France's unique unit File:Civ 6 Chateau.jpg|The Château, France's unique improvement File:French capital.JPG|French capital in Medieval Era Videos Related achievements Category:French